Battlefield Australia produces a striking group of founder applicants

Applications are officially closed for TechCrunch’s Battlefield Australia, and the response exceeded expectations. There are 272 early-stage companies from Australia and New Zealand that are now vying for a spot in Battlefield Australia and for a chance to walk away with the $25,000 prize and an all-expense paid trip to Disrupt SF in 2018. That’s an impressive number of applicants by any standard.

The majority of the companies come from New South Wales and Victoria, but we’re happy to see applicants from all across Australia and New Zealand alike. The November 16 event in Sydney at the ATP Locomotive Workshop will provide a gob-smacking intro for the global audience to the amazing startup scene Down Under. Want a ticket to the event? Click here.

Next up in the process, our editors will review the applications to find the top 15. We will notify the selected companies no later than October 11, but the identity of the participants will remain a secret until the day of the show, when they pitch the Battlefield judges, all of whom are top investors and founders from the region and beyond.

Meanwhile, TechCrunch's editors will be working with the final 15 to sharpen pitches, improve stage presence and role play potential questions from the judges.

All eyes will be on these founders, and TechCrunch's goal is to put them in the best position prior to them taking the stage in front of the judges, a live audience, and a global audience online. The Battlefield will be streamed live on TechCrunch, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

TechCrunch is sending a cohort of writers and editors to help with the event. Leading the team is TechCrunch's Editor-in-Chief, Matthew Panzarino, and joining him are Josh Constine, Jordan Crook, Anthony Ha, and Greg Kumparak. Needless to say, they are looking forward to catching up on the ANZ ecosystem and unearthing great stories.

The event’s agenda is filling fast with speakers and Battlefield judges. Look for the full agenda in a few weeks. But we're happy to let on the names of a few speakers and judges, including Melanie Perkins, a co-founder and CEO at Canva, Steve Ji, a partner at Sequoia Capital China, and David Gowdey, managing partner at Singapore's Jungle Ventures, and Ian Gardiner, head of startup ecosystems for ANZ at Amazon Web Services.

There's more to come next week. In the meantime, wish us well at TC Disrupt SF, which starts next Monday.